Crafty Kids ~ April ~

April's Crafty Kids project will have the kiddos creating treasure boxes.  These sturdy boxes with magnetic closures can be created to perfectly suit your child's room.  The boxes measure 6 3/8" x 2 1/8" x 4 3/8".  The sample box was created using "girly" papers and embellishments but the boys will be just as awesome using "boyish" papers and embellishments.  The colors of the projects will vary depending on the request of each child.

April's workshop will be held on Sunday April 15th and fees need to be in no later than Friday March 30th so that I have time to get the items ordered.  

~Bobbi~

Chore Charts

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE the chore charts!  Grant uses his all the time and I rarely have to remind him about his chores anymore.  I shared the picture of Grant's chart and had a friend who requested 2 chore charts for her children.  They can be customized to meet your needs.   Let me know if you're interested in purchasing one or want help to make one :)

Crafty Kids ~ March ~

The workshop project for March for Crafty Kids was monogrammed canvases.  I cut out the letter, the kiddos punched out the shapes and designed their canvas.  There was a full house for Crafty Kids this month ... 13 kids!    I finally remembered to pull out the camera during the first session ... and forgot for the second one :(   

Emily & Taylor busy working on their projects :)

Sheri helping Bre with her canvas (or should I say Sheri making Bre's canvas)

The final (still wet) product from Bre & Wilson

I made Averi's and Grant added his own touches to his

Grant showing off his monogram canvas from Crafty Kids :)

Next month we will be creating treasure boxes.  I'll be making a sample in the next few days and I'll get pictures posted :)

Grant's Chore Board

Our lives just got a whole lot more hectic since Averi arrived.  Keeping on top of Grant about his chores has moved way down on my list of priorities simply for the fact that I'm so preoccupied with other duties now.  I combined a few different ideas that I have seen used for chore charts and came up with this one for Grant.  The paper is entirely under glass so he can use a dry erase marker on it and easily wipe it off.  He is very excited about his new chore chart and I'm hoping that it helps remind him of his responsibilities.

These can be customized with any color scheme and made to fit the specific chores/responsibilities that your child has.  If you're interested in having one made, they're $20 each or 2 for $35.

Time to get organized!

The older Grant gets, the more hectic our schedule becomes!  I modified this idea that was found on Pinterest to fit our family's needs.  It's our meal planner/daily schedule.  The meals are written out on magnets and I have placed magnets in the top left corner of each day.  I could write out the meals but this way I don't have to try to remember the different recipes/meals that my family likes and it will ensure that we don't eat the same few meals over and over.  I was quite surprised ... by the time I wrote the meals out, we have over 40 different dishes!  The bottom 4 frames are perfect for jotting down reminders :)

**For the record, this was NOT our actual meal plan ... we didn't have 2 tuna dishes in the same week :)  **

I have had quite a few people ask about making a frame.  I am going to set up a night for people to come over to make their own.  You supply your own frame and the cost will be $5.00 to cover the paper and use of supplies :)  Let me know if you're interested :)  

Something Old, Something New

From the day Tommy asked me to marry him, I knew what type of dress I wanted.  After looking through a few bridal magazines, I found the dress for me.  I instantly fell in love with it and tore the picture out of the magazine. I carried that picture around for months and when it came time to shop for wedding dresses, I show the tattered picture to the bridal consultant and said "This is the dress I want".  She did the whole "well you have to try on a number of dresses because you won't necessarily like dresses once you try them on" ...blah blah blah!   I KNEW that would be my dress and there was no way ANYONE was going to talk me out of it!

Here we are almost 11 years after we got married and I fell in love with my wedding dress all over again ... this time for a different reason.  My daughter Averi is being baptized next weekend and I needed to buy her a gown for it.  After looking at dresses, I decided that I was going to re-purpose my wedding dress into a baptismal gown for Averi.  I took my favorite aspect of my dress (the back/train) and made it into a gown for Averi.  After several attempts at using a pattern to create her gown (I can't follow a pattern if my life depended on it!)  I decided to wing it and create my own design.  The anxiety and stress that came from the thought of cutting up my wedding gown almost made me stop.  I thought about it and decided that I would never again be wearing my gown, I love it so much and what a better way to incorporate the love between Tommy & I into Averi's special day.... I did it, I took the scissors to my wedding gown.  

I couldn't be happier with how Averi's gown turned out!!  I'm far from being a professional seamstress (I would actually only consider myself a very novice sewer)  but here's the final product.  

Next on the agenda was a headband for Averi's big day.  I looked online to check out my options and I was going to buy one ... after all, the dress took me quite a while to make so I was going to just buy her headband.  I couldn't find what I wanted.  I was looking for simple, all white, and pretty.  I love the rosettes that I see on headbands but never knew how to make them and all the ones I found were colored.  Off to youtube I went to find a tutorial on making roses.  It was actually quite easy.  These roses are made using the material from my wedding gown as well.  

I probably could have paid a seamstress to make my wedding gown into Averi's baptismal gown and had it look better, but I'm quite proud of what I came up with.  No amount of money could be paid to a seamstress to put the love that I have put into making Averi's gown & headband.  She has been such a blessing to our lives and at times it still surreal to believe that she's actually here.  When I found out that she was a girl the first thing I said to Tommy was "I don't know how to be a girl Mom" ..... looks like I've figured it out.  Love you bunches and bunches Averi Mae Britton

NEW!!! 6" Mini Photo Cube Towers :)

These are what I have been busy designing!  I'll be doing a Mini Photo Cube Tower Workshop at my house as well as at the fundraiser for Grant's scout troop. The cost will be $10/3 block tower.  I'll cut all papers, all you have to do is stamp and assemble!

The "boy" tower is made using the "Super Hero" paper packet from CTMH and the "girl" tower is made using the "Roxie" paper packet.  These towers will showcase as many as six 1 1/2" photos.   These would make adorable desk decorations for your office or would be the perfect item to give as a gift.  Mine will be sitting on my entertainment center with my kids' pictures on them :)  

There are MANY pictures in this post so that you can see the full effect of the cubes.  I absolutely LOVE them!  The toppers are made using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (available only through Close To My Heart).  Ask me how to buy the cartridge for 50% off!